Let me start by saying that Joel is just a frikkin amazing artist, been a fan of his work for years. Not surprisingly we’ve been talking about doing a music video for him for years. Those talks revolved around another song of his that is still one of my favs but sadly the budget for the concept I wanted to do never came together (though I’m still hoping to revisit and do that one someday!)

Fast forward to a month or so ago when Joel sent me over this tune. No surprise, I loved it. He told me his real life “little girl in an airstream” girl, Jane, had some ideas she wanted to tell me about they dropped by for a cup of coffee and conviviality. Being a fan of randomness and non sequiturs I was giddy when she said she wanted to dance with a chicken and eat fried okra off of his guitar (in the spirit of full disclosure I should tell you that I just suppressed my desire to make a bad and obvious pun and opted to use the word “guitar” instead of “instrument”)

After nearly a week of beautiful weather here in the good ole ATX (that’s Austin to the uninformed), on the day of the shoot the morning started out with rain mixed with sleet mixed with snow. Thankfully after about an hour standing under a car port it cleared up enough to start filming. At this point I don’t think I could tell the details of the shoot any better than Joel did on his Facebook page that night. The following was his recanting of the days events. I can attest first hand that there were no liberties taken with what went on that day and the first time I read his post I laughed so hard it hurt:

Little Girl in an Airstream’ video shoot commenced with me doing several takes singing and preening while Jane and her make-up assistant did their thing.

FIRST entry of the ‘Little Girl’ on filem(Jane Jennings) was a provocative dance with a large white hen from the Comanche/Apache lady that lived on the corner of the Airstream Trailer park. The lady asked me when I told her we needed to borrow one of her hens, “…Now what you guys actually DOING with MY chicken?” “Well, just dancing while holding it closely.” I answered. She scowled and stated, “I DO NOT WANT MY CHICKEN stressed in ANY WAY!” “I promise the chicken will be carefully and respectfully danced with…” I said in my best snake oil salesman voice.

Let me tell you guys this was a WILD CHICKEN. The Indian ladies boyfriend went and fetched the white layin’ hen…it flopped and pecked at him.

The music started and Jane was offered the chicken…AMAZINGLY it calmed right down and was the perfect little hen as Jane “Little Girl” danced and wiggled to the music. If fact a local resident who was watching remarked, “…I think she is a chicken whisperer…” It was SO RELAXED IT SHIT SEVERAL TIMES ON Jane’s apron…but “Little Girl” carried on as if NOTHING was happening out of the sort.

And then IT HAPPENED. At a moment “Little Girl” was holding the large white hen aloft…PLOP. YES, it layed an egg that bounced off Jane’s apron and splattered under the steps of the Airstream. Jane continued dancing. The chickens ASS started bleeding and it dripped blood on the apron while the film was rolling. Blood splotches, egg drippings and chicken shit…DID NOT STOP Jane from dancing. It was actually VERY FUCKING COOL.

The owner took the chicken back to its coop and then about an hour later came back and stated with a straight face to all of us still shooting video. “… I cleaned its ass and we put Preparation H on it and it is feeling better…” ~ Joel Melton
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As for the technical, shot on a Sony PMW-F3k, edited in Sony Vegas and additional CC with Magic Bullet Looks.

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